Hey everyone. I thought I would check in now that the heat is finally below 100 degrees here in TN.

Born to Fly
My feature in Model Aviation magazine is out the month. My column is called "Born to Fly" and this month I feature the bass player for Alice Cooper, who also happens to be a hardcore RC pilot.

Mojo .60for Sale
I have been a profile plane fan for a long time. I loved them so much I started a website about them called TheProfileBrotherhood.com. This month I'm selling a Mojo .60 RTF frame. This plane has never been in the air and all it needs is TX/RX and battery. The Mojo is my favorite plane of all time! Check that out that out here.
IRCHA 2010
Our partner site CrackRoll.com went to IRCHA again this year and provided some great coverage of the event with photos and videos. You can check that out here.

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ProBro Tony D AKA YNOT was making his way through Nashville so I invited him by for a steak and a tour. I have known Tony for as long the Profile Brotherhood has been in existence. He is an OG Bro for sure. I took Tony to my skunk works room AKA "the garage". Tony told me a story about his friends at work asking about my 1976 Eldorado Caddy convertible that was featured in the Pat Green song "Carry On" so we had to get a picture of that. We also hung out in my new guitar room that is almost finished since the flood. The steak was great, the wife made some amazing cowboy potatoes and a good time was had by all! We debriefed about the current state of RC and then Tony was off to Houston, Texas. Thanks for stopping by TD!

I took the family out today to my local field. Today was "Kid's Day" at the Edwin Warner field (one of the oldest RC fields in the US). The parks people come out and helped the kids make paper planes while the local club members flew different types of RC planes for the kids. Hobby Lobby was on hand with the Giant Telemaster for a candy drop. Even Bobby Keyes, the sax player for the Rolling Stones was on hand. The heat was down slightly, the wind was up slightly, but all in all it was a great day!!!...Continue Reading

So it seems that Springs showers have brought more than May flowers. The rain started yesterday and after being hustled into a gym basement due to a tornado being seen while at a guitar show in Leipersford we realized things were going South. When the tornado alert was officially over we jumped in the BBT (big black truck) and high tailed it home. We saw houses under water, trees across the roads and drove through fast and deep water. Mean while the wife and kids were at home watching the water rise in the backyard. The day before Ang had found a bunny nest with babies. She and my daughter went out back to save the babies and by the time they had one rabbit captured the creek jumped it's banks, jumped our retaining wall and in a matter of a minute or two had filled the pool that was empty (this usually takes a day or two with a water hose). The water has been steadily flowing since yesterday. Here are some photos and a video:

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I just attended my last indoor for the year. The Weak Signals show was great, grueling and fun but now it's time to go outside!! Even though I'm still recovering from hitting the show floor in the morning and covering the ETOC from 6 until 11PM I must be ready to get outside because I spent yesterday working on the golf cart to make sure she is ready for the season ahead. I'm proud to say the tires are holding air, the battery is holding a charge and the ice cream truck musical horn can now play music from my Iphone!

SEFF is first up and I know the boys from Rite Wing are already on the ground over in GA. I'll head out Wednesday for the largest outdoor electric event in the world. On Sunday I won't say goodbye but "SEE YOU AT NALL!". That will be next on the RCG tour. Jim Bourke will be meeting us in SC with a free spirit and a 40 foot motor home. We will setup up camp RCGroups/FlyingGiants/CrackRoll and prepare to enjoy the 1,000 plus acres of giant scale, 3D, heli, electric and water flying. Uploading photos from the field in SC is tough too but that's what we do to make sure everyone can enjoy these events!

From there it's off to the XFC, IRCHA and after that I'll probably be ready for the winter so I can sit down for a minute!!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone, be sure to say "HEY"!...Continue Reading

It never ceases to amaze me when the site cracks another million posts. We just turned the corner on 14 million posts! The thanks goes out to all of you with your questions, your answers, your thoughts and everything else you post. Congrats!!

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If you have ever shot video of RC planes for an extended period of time you know what a literal pain in the neck it can be. Last year at XFC we were thinking there has got to be a better way. My old RC friend Bud Morrison sent me a couple of gun stocks to see if I could mount a camera on one of them. In preparation for the E-fest I got my camera all mounted up. It took some liberal Dremel tool grinding, some creative thinking and the dissassembly of a tripod but I finished her up and man is it cool looking! I have it setup so I can use the eyepiece or the LCD screen. The big question is will it make shooting video any easier? I guess we will find out soon. All that is left to do is apply some RCG graphics.
Here are some shots of the RCG Camstock...

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You know here on RCG I have a job much like Santa's, I get to see who is naughty and who is nice on a daily basis. I also get to work with all of our great vendors and travel to the country covering the greatest RC events in the world. I just wanted to wish everyone out there a great holiday and thank you for making this site great!

Here is a song a buddy and I put together in the Hell Wagon studio and a video I shot with our kids.

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WOOO HOO! I knew we were close and checked the stats today. We officially have more than 13 MILLION POSTS! That is a lot of RC information in one place! Thanks to our founding RC community father Jim Bourke and thanks to all of you for making millions of great posts!

Our goal has always been to create a forum that is informative, fun, easy to navigate, and our Google Analytics are telling us that we are doing something right! Thanks to all of our members who make this site what it is, and thanks to Jim Bourke for having the crazy idea of creating the first RC web forum 14 years ago.

RCGroups.com Google Analytics for July, 2009:
Registered Users - 278,114
Absolute unique visitors for July - 867,389
Total visits for July - 2.6 million
Unique user per day for July - 84,990
Total Page views for July - 24 million
Average time on site - 8:56
New Visitors - 26.15%
Over 13 million posts

So may wife and I were just watching a show on the Discovery Channel called "Is It True?" and half the show featured the feasibility of one wing aircraft landings. They showed a video that was passing itself off as a full scale one wing landing, then they showed Jim Bourke's RC one wing landing from earlier in the year. To test the theory they went to Oregon to visit Jim B. and he created an RC plane with a switch activated detachable wing. The first wing wedged into place and didn't actually detach. But the second attempt worked and JB landed the plane perfectly!

It was sort of mind blowing to see Jim Bourke and the Knife Edge offices on the Discovery channel. I was also excited to see one of the RCGroups foamies in the show that I created for RCG from my old RC company. VERY COOL!!! Congrats to Jim not only for being on national TV but for actually pulling the one wing landing off when the pressure was on!!!
Jim Bourke's blog about the show.

Chuck searches the Everglades for the elusive truth behind a series of Internet images of Florida's mysterious Skunk Ape. Then, he takes to the skies to confirm that the online footage of an airplane landing with only one wing is humanly possible....Continue Reading

While on my multi-state RC show run I got wind of a giant scale event that was being hosted by the Cards of Lansing, MI. The clouds were threatening but I figured weather like this was probably normal for a state surrounded by water and pushed the Hell Wagon on through increasingly narrow roads. At last I saw an RC plane in the sky and seconds later got a great view of what looked to be be a pretty large outdoor event...SCORE!

The crowd was thick and there were some amazing looking planes on the ground. I don't usually travel this far North but I was happy to see some pilots that I know and received a warm welcome. I took a vast cornucopia of photos to help share the exerience. Thanks to the Cards for the warm welcome. We had a great time!

Usually I travel the country in my big black truck and trailer in tow alone. This week I had the wife and kids along for a trip to the AMA facility in Muncie, Indiana. They all knew I ventured there at least once a year and wrote my colum "Born to Fly" and sent it in to the AMA office but they had never seen this mythical place of over 1,000 acres of flying fields. I'll let the photos tell the the tale but we got there in time to take in the Nats. The kids loved the museum and my 6 year old son brought his camera along and was determined to get every photo his Dad took. It was a great time. A big thanks to Jay Smith for taking us around and being our tour guid. Jay (Dovtor Who) is also a reviewer here at RCG and a friend that I see at shows all over the country. He also now works at the AMA as an assistant editor. I highly suggest if you have not taken your kids to the facility that you do it. Mine now have a renewed interst in learning to fly and finally they know where their Dad goes to when he takes to the road - GOOD TIMES!...Continue Reading

My local club is just down the road and a part of our park system. Every so often they have a day out for kids. Planes are demoed, Hobby Lobby does a candy drop, and there are activities for the kids. On Father's day my wife said, "why don't you go do something you want to do". Not to shortly after she made that statement my Mojo .60 was repaired and ready for the flight line. Luckily they needed someone to keep flying as long as people were there and I happily oblidged! Thanks Brother Sloan from SEMNET for sending me a handy dandy patch kit for my birds. The Mojo .40 is next up on the block! The kids all had a great time (mine incuded) and I think we are all looking forward to the next one....Continue Reading

My Dad was quite a man. He ran hot rods in the 50's, was a Marine during the Korean war and was one of the first in his family to go to college. He stood 6 foot 5 and could run a bank, a truck dealership and the chamber of commerce during during the day and make friends in a biker bar at night... back when bikers were for real. My Dad was a rough, tough, straight talking type of fellow but he always had our backs and best interests at heart. I know a lot of what I am is because of him. I held his hand the day he died and I have missed him every day since. So raise a glass to my "Pop", Mr. Jim C. Graham. He was a hell of a guy and we all miss him.

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Mile Stones Reached!
RCGroups.com now has over 12 million posts, more than 1 million threads! That is a vast calvacade of RC information!
Thanks to all our users that have contributed to this great site that we call home!

I'm going to keep everyone up to date as we get ready for the ETOC. Today the DuraTrax Vendettas showed up! SUPER BAD! We will have the whole line of Vendettas running on the RCCars.com foam track in one of the rooms at the ETOC. Next will come Lipos for the Vendettas from our friends at MaxAmps.com.

Also the official RCGroups.com/FlyingGiants.com water balloon launcher arrived! Why would we need that? Imagine the RCG models holding the launcher as I shoot RCG and FG t-shirts into the crowd. SOUNDS LIKE FUN!

When Mark Cleveland took over ownership of Hobby Lobby he thought having Jim Bourke (owner of RCGroups.com, FlyingGiants.com, CrackRoll.com and RCCars.com) visit was a good idea. Since I live in Nashville I knew this would also give me a chance to give Jim B. a tour of the city I live in and love. We spent the day with Hobby Lobby, and Jim was also able to tour the facility. We had a great time and took photos of our adventure.
I also took Jim B. to my favorite places in Nashville so he could get a taste of the town. Here are the photos of his visit......Continue Reading